so I got a barely used phone from my buddy. He had thought it was stolen just after buying it, but has recently found it and given it to me because it has a little port for a SIM card. Since I have T-mobile I thought that I would simply have to root and unlock the phone via some online tutorial and pop the SIM in, but to no avail. I can't find much info on the phone and it seems to only run CDMA. Nothing happens when I insert my SIM card. It is the ZTE Engage V8000. It is a Muve Music phone from Cricket.

I was wondering if I could just put Ubuntu for Phones on it and it would detect my SIM. Would that work? I feel like Ubuntu for Phones might be thrown out there enough for it to work. If not, how can I get my SIM card to work on the Android OS? Do I need to install a whole new operating system? Is there any way that I can use this phone? My current phone doesn't seem to have a strong enough antenna for my area. It's a cheapy knock-off from Hong Kong so anything else would work. Any help is much appreciated

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

I can see where you are coming from, but I feel as though I am asking something only slightly different. I need more specific information that I cannot find anywhere else, and that is not included in the question deemed a possible duplicate (I had already reviewed that Q&A and was not satisfied). I need more-so to know whether I can immediately use the Ubuntu-Touch software for a phone via GSM network. I also need to know if I can even use the phone here. I came to this site because it is by-far the best. A lot of questions get marked as "duplicates", but we need more-specific, guiding info.
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Joseph_carpAug 17 '13 at 21:50

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I'm not sure your question is actually destined for here, though, you're not asking a question about Ubuntu Touch but rather a question about whether using Android, or using some other OS, and not an actual question about ubuntu-touch or android. Also the fact you're using a cheap knock-off phone might also be the source of your issues :P
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Thomas W.Aug 17 '13 at 21:53

Well the cheap knock-off phone is unrelated to the problem. That was just to show that I was desperate to be able to use this new phone. And I sort of understand what you mean. I am also running Ubuntu 13.04 and would need help installing the OS using Ubuntu since everything out there is for Windows or Macintosh.
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Joseph_carpAug 17 '13 at 22:16